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Been doing PR for 20 years, and unless it's trade media, you can send
information to a wide variety of contacts at a large media outlet. I will
guarantee you that large media outlets have regular assignment meetings, so
it's unlikely that more than one person would end up doing a story.
However, approaching the organization first to find out who the various
contacts are is always a good idea. I have a media list of 70+ contacts in
greater Charlotte, NC. Only the smallest outlets have a single contact
person. And I have been told by most of them to send information to several
people to increase the chances of it being read and followed up on by
someone.
YMMV
Connie Giordano.
-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Davey [mailto:ant -at- ant-davey -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 11:01 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Press Release Distribution
Ruth,
In general I'd say 'no', don't do it. Do a bit more research and find
out if there is a central pool of information that is held, so that
anybody can dip into it. Or, find out if one person receives press kits
and distributes the information to all potentially interested parties.
If you find out, or already know, that nobody in the behemoth speaks to
anybody else unless they really have to, then send one to each person,
but include a circulation list so that they know the other people have
it. The danger with this approach is that Everybody will think that
Somebody will do the story, but eventually you find out that Nobody did
it instead. If it's a first approach to the organisation and you don't
have any background with them I would suggest a follow up call to each
of the people, or perhaps even a pre-emptive call to find out if they
would be interested. It's still August, so you could get some good
coverage!
BTW, I wouldn't tweak the PR for each recipient, but perhaps a short
covering letter.
